MTL NOVEL Chapter 26: Chapter 23: Mirage Symphony
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Prologue: The Phantom's Arrival
A slow clap echoed through the ruined battlefield.
Cetz stepped into the dim light, his golden eyes gleaming with amusement.
Akira's breath hitched.
He was finally here.
The battlefield was in ruins.
Reika's strings still hung in the air like the remnants of a broken spider's web. The team had barely survived her assault, and the wounds from their battle with her were still fresh—some of them bleeding, others buried deeper, in the mind.
Kenji's breathing was ragged, his arms limp at his sides from the strain of breaking free from Reika's control.
Hiroshi's katana trembled in his grip, his body slick with sweat from the near-constant illusions forcing him to fight his own comrades.
Mei was steady, but Akira could see it—her fingers twitching from exhaustion, her blades slower than before.
Daisuke wiped blood from his lip, his usual smirk gone. His stance tense, but his eyes were still sharp.
And then there was Akira.
Still standing.
Still analyzing.
He had already lost count of how many mental battles he had fought in the last few minutes alone. And yet, as his eyes locked onto Cetz, he felt something different from Reika's controlled malice.
She had fought like a spider, pulling their strings.
Cetz was something else.
Something bigger.
His presence wasn't suffocating like Reika's—rather, it was inevitable.
Like everything had gone exactly as he had planned.
Reika turned to him, lips curling into a pleased smirk. "You took your time."
Cetz chuckled, adjusting the cuffs of his long coat.
"Apologies," he said smoothly. "I was enjoying the show."
He glanced at the team—his gaze lingering on Akira.
And in that instant—
The world shifted.
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Phase One: The Phantom's Opening Move
Cetz took a slow step forward.
"Tell me," he mused, his voice casual, almost lazy. "How do you define reality?"
Akira's breath caught.
A flicker of distortion danced at the edge of his vision.
Then—
A blade whistled toward his neck.
Akira barely ducked. Hiroshi's katana carved through the air where his throat had been.
"What the hell?!" Hiroshi reeled back, horrified. "I—I didn't swing—!!"
But Akira knew immediately.
Cetz had already altered perception.
Hiroshi hadn't moved at all.
Akira had just been tricked into thinking he did.
Cetz smiled. "Clever boy."
Then—
The world shattered.
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Phase Two: The Phantom's Symphony
The battlefield vanished.
One moment, they were in the ruined warehouse—
The next—
They stood on an endless stage, surrounded by thousands of empty seats.
The sky was a swirling, infinite abyss.
The ground was nothing but a single, glowing spotlight.
A grand piano sat in the center.
Cetz took a seat at the piano, adjusting his gloves before resting his fingers on the keys.
"Welcome," he said smoothly, "to Mirage Symphony."
His fingers pressed down.
The music began.
And the world collapsed.
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Phase Three: The Death Waltz
The moment Cetz played his first note, Akira felt his reality fragment.
His body split.
Ten versions of himself stood in different places—each one experiencing a different moment.
One saw Hiroshi attacking him.
Another saw Kenji being impaled.
A third saw Mei screaming in agony.
None of them were real.
But they felt real.
Cetz's fingers moved effortlessly across the piano, his melody weaving countless illusions into existence.
The air itself became his canvas.
"Tell me, Akira," Cetz mused, his voice coming from everywhere at once. "If you cannot trust your own senses—how do you plan to fight back?"
The illusions attacked.
Phantom blades.
Fake deaths.
Pain that wasn't real but felt real.
Kenji roared in frustration, swinging a massive punch—only for his own fist to crush against an illusion of Daisuke's face.
"KENJI, STOP!" Daisuke barely dodged, eyes wide.
Kenji's breath hitched. "But—I saw—I was hitting—"
Mei twisted mid-air, her Razor Symphony blades cutting nothing but air.
Daisuke tried to run, but his own legs felt heavy.
Reika chuckled from the sidelines, crossing her arms. "See? This is true control."
Akira gritted his teeth.
They were being toyed with.
They needed a counter.
He needed to find the flaw.
And then—
It hit him.
The music.
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Phase Four: Tearing Down the Phantom's Stage
Cetz's power was absolute—
But it was still a performance.
Every illusion followed the rhythm of the song.
Every attack—every hallucination—was synchronized with the melody.
Which meant—
If Akira could disrupt the music…
He could break the illusion.
His Stand, Echo Chamber, hummed with potential.
Akira closed his eyes, focusing on the sound.
He listened not to the illusions—
But to the notes beneath them.
And then, he struck.
A sharp, calculated pulse of sound erupted from Echo Chamber.
Not random noise—but dissonance.
A single, off-key note in Cetz's perfect melody.
And in that instant—
The illusions glitched.
Kenji's fist, mid-swing, flickered.
Mei's distorted blades shimmered, uncertain.
Hiroshi's ghostly attacker vanished.
Cetz's fingers froze on the piano.
His golden eyes narrowed.
"Oh?"
Akira smirked, wiping blood from his lip. "Guess what, Cetz?"
He struck another note.
The world fractured.
The illusions collapsed.
And for the first time—
Cetz looked mildly impressed.
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Epilogue: The Phantom's Amusement
Cetz rose from the piano, dusting off his coat.
The stage shattered, returning them to the real world.
The warehouse reappeared—battered, ruined, but real.
Reika frowned. "Tch. You let them break free."
Cetz laughed softly, stepping forward. "Not quite. I just found something more… entertaining."
His gaze locked onto Akira.
"Tell me," he mused, tilting his head, "just how far can you go?"
Akira didn't answer.
His body ached. His mind felt like it had just fought an entire army.
And yet—
He knew.
This was only the beginning.
Cetz smiled.
"Good. Then let's make this fun."